It is known to protect wind turbine rotor blades from damage by a stroke of lightning using a lightning protection device. For this purpose, a plurality of lightning receptors can be arranged on the rotor blade. The current from a flash of lightning striking such a lightning receptor is dissipated via a lightning protection conductor toward the blade root and from there via the nacelle and the tower of the wind turbine into the ground.
The lightning receptors and all other elements of the lightning protection device should be arranged in such a way that flashes of lightning only strike the lightning receptors. Each stroke of lightning at another location, whether it be another electrically conductive element of the wind turbine rotor blade such as, for example, a supporting structure consisting of a carbon fiber material, an electrical heating device or another electrical line, can under certain circumstances result in irreparable damage to the rotor blade. This also applies to flashes of lightning which strike a lightning receptor base or the lightning protection conductor itself at a distance from a lightning protection receptor.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,883,321 discloses a wind turbine rotor blade having two lightning receptors arranged opposite one another in the region of the blade tips. The lightning receptors are screwed to in each case one lightning receptor base. The two receptor bases are coupled to one another via a bolt and are connected separately from one another to a central lightning protection conductor via electrical lines.
WO 2011/080177 A1 discloses a lightning protection device for a wind turbine rotor blade. A conductive surface coating acts as lightning receptor and is coupled electrically, via rods, to a lightning protection conductor in the interior of the rotor blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,105,635 discloses a lightning protection device for a wind turbine rotor blade in which mutually opposite lightning receptors are coupled to a lightning protection conductor via a rod.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,133,031 discloses a wind turbine rotor blade in which two lightning receptors arranged on the pressure and suction sides are screwed to an integrally formed lightning receptor base in the region of the blade tip. The lightning receptor base is a solid, large-volume block consisting of an electrically conductive material.